Goucher College once again had the opportunity to see some live music in the Gopher Hole: One act was a Goucher band, the other a local, or not-so-local, band, as the case may be. This time around, the lineup consisted of Naked Ancestor and the Phil Henry Band of Burlington, VT. I was happy to trek down to our humble "alcohol-free student pub" in order to offer you readers my translation of the musical goings-on of the night.
Naked Ancestor played a dynamic, melodic, and well-crafted set of music, enhanced by the improvisational communication between Laine Carney's and Greg Wolff's Telecasters. The Phil Henry Band, though they sounded nice in the background as I ate my cookie craze, left me bored and uninspired.
I have to say that I was really quite impressed by Naked Ancestor's set. They've come a long way from their concert in Fall '02 and the Lynard Skynard covers that accompanied it. The music has matured and become much more interesting, and the band played attentively and enthusiastically. Many of the songs had mellow, melodic beginnings, which escalated into harder sections where singing turned to screaming and guitar picking turned to chord-ripping. Wolff's lead guitar work wandered from each pole of the guitar neck, utilizing what sounded like some reverb or echo and working really tactfully with the melodies.
Though the bulk of Naked Ancestors' songs used minor progressions, cyclic guitar overlays, and cooing vocals, they didn't overwork the sound to a point where they were straddling the fine line from original melodic rock to melodramatic emo. And while Carney's vocals breached a Thom Yorke (of the Radiohead fame, as if I need to remind you) kind of sound, he didn't ape anyone's style, which is largely important. Carney's screams during the heavier sections started off a little weak, but by the end of the set he resonated with a nice balance between a Bono kind of moan and a good old fashioned angsty howl. Drummer Tim Blutstein kept pretty still, but upon closer examination was clearly concentrating intently on the percussive work. He moved very skillfully from the airy, slower sections of the songs to the dense, fast drumming needed for the harder parts.
Naked Ancestor kept us entertained by busting out the moroccas; during one song, they even added an almost street punk section, which evoked warm memories of high school punk rock shows. With songs like "When the World Falls Down" (David Bowie) and originals like "Tree," "Jungle," and "Painful Blue," Naked Ancestor performed a tight, impassioned set further solidified by James Stevens' bass playing.
In accordance with what seems to be an increasingly popular habit amongst Goucher audiences, 90% of the people watching left as soon as the first band was finished, leaving the few lingerers to sympathetically watch the second act. Though I think this sucks, it also partly reflects the fact that the headlining bands have been really bad lately. Which leads me to approach a painful subject, The Phil Henry Band.
I should first make it clear that The Phil Henry Band clearly enjoyed themselves onstage and they persevered through their allotted time with vigor despite the embarrassingly sparse attendance. This commands some respect. But let's talk about their music.
I think that The Phil Henry Band can be pretty well described as contemporary folk with a sax and a side of jam band. But while their music started off in a good place, it just didn't hold up long enough to make me a believer. At first, the sax playing was refreshing and really introduced a pure, old school rock element, but the solos dragged on forever and the rhythm section just wasn't exciting enough to carry through the solos and come out on top. The singer's voice was clear and resonant, but his constant, redundant acoustic strumming stifled the compositions and left some dubbing-out to be desired.
I've considered the possibility that the sound engineering in the Gopher Hole just doesn't completely support an acoustic band, and that perhaps it could also be responsible for crippling the high to low spectrum of PHB's music. However, it seemed to me that their overall sound already hung out way too much in the mid ranges, despite any technical hindrances. This resulted in a murky sound further weighted down by the 6-string bass and tenor sax. The singing was a little higher than the instruments, but consequently sounded stark in comparison.
The Phil Henry Band covered songs like "Send Me On My Way" (Rusted Root), "Eleanor Rigby," and, brace yourself, "Hit Me Baby One More Time." Frankly, the whole cover-Britney Spears-in-the-context-of-a-rock-band thing is a little played out; I saw a grindcore band do that a few years ago when it was still funny, but in 2003 it just looks desperate. However, the Beatles cover, though drawn out, sounded nice and showed that their musical abilities worked well with a really well-crafted song.
The Phil Henry Band seemed like a really nice bunch of guys, and though they clearly loved what they were doing, their compositions lacked the substance and zest to support any performance environment other than someone's living room on a Saturday night. Naked Ancestor's performance justified anybody coming out to see the show, despite one's musical preference, and I hope that more Goucher bands continue to use the Gopher Hole to showcase their talents.
Be the first to comment on this article!